Barbarous is a new death metal band out of California. They released a two-song EP last year, Coup de Grâce, as a precursor to their debut album, and both those songs reappear on this album – Initium Mors. Eight songs in 29 minutes and all encapsulated in a fun album cover equipped with a neat […]

Listen, I strive to be as objective as possible when writing reviews, providing an unbiased opinion where I can to guide you, good reader, in the right direction and help you spend your hard-earned money wisely. But if you have read my reviews before, you know I am one: A huge fan of the blackened/symphonic […]

As I stated in my review of the excellent Obšar EP, I love receiving unsolicited, blind requests from obscure, completely unknown (to me) bands for us to review their material. So when I got an email from Moscow’s Renunciation, asking us to cover their second album, Make Babylon Great Again, I checked the band’s music […]

The promotional email for the sophomore effort from this Danish act (named after the Hebrew word for wanderer?) stated it was melodic black metal for ‘fans of Behemoth, Hate, Mgla, Belphegor, Anaal Nathrak’. Not sure I could have been lured in any harder if they had a six pack of IPA beer, Crunchie candy bars, […]

I learned a new word today, “effulgence,” as in Pain Effulgence, the new album from Innumerable Forms. All you nerds probably already knew that it’s at odds with the first word in the album title, as I don’t consider pain luminous or radiant. If it works for the band, it works for me, but their […]

If you don’t know the name Darren Cesca, you certainly know the bands he has drummed for over the years: Pillory, Arsis, Goratory, Incinerate, In Asymmetry, Serpent of Gnosis, Deeds of Flesh, and what was a surprise to me, the 2006 Burn In Silence album, Angel Maker– a metalcore album drenched in keyboards. Here is […]

Thorn – the one man wrecking machine of doom/death metal returns with the fourth album Nebulous Womb of Eternity. I have enjoyed all the prior releases, although at times, the production can get a tad muddy. “Ooze Maelstrom” starts this seven-song 37 37-minute onslaught with a blast beat. I was not expecting the opening to […]

It’s no secret that I love Helloween. They were the first German Power Metal band I ever heard, way back in 1986, with their amazing Keeper of the Seven Keys Part 1 album. I was a hooked fish at that point. Power and majesty have always been the cornerstone of any Helloween album (well, maybe […]

It’s no surprise that I love Panzerchrist as much as I do. Their core sound has remained consistent throughout their storied career. Each album has stood as a testament to their brand of brutality that has remained solid since 1999’s Six Seconds Kill. Maleficium Part 2 is the follow up to last year’s Maleficium Part […]

Imperial Crystalline Entombment hail from Waldorf, MD, and is the brainchild of Ron Vento from Aurora Borealis, who also owns NightSky Productions and is a well-known name in extreme metal for his recording and production qualities. Abominable Astral Summoning is the newest and third creation for I.C.E. Ron provides all the instrumentation, while Mike Hrubovcak, […]

Despite its name, death metal never dies. It’s always relevant but has had a resurgence over the last few years with a crop of newer bands bringing forth the corpses of the past, along with established acts doing the same. There’s no substitute for the old-school sound championed by Dismember, Bolt Thrower, Entombed, and the […]

Crungus (a name given to an AI-generated creature – I’ll let Wikipedia explain this one further) is a Texas-based death metal band that happens to feature a former writer for this very site, Kris Allred, who performs bass here on the band’s second album, their first on a label. So now that’s out of the […]

Sweden’s most consistent bunch of Vikings need no introduction. Unleashed have been stalwarts of the scene since Johnny Hedlund was booted from Nihilist back in the late 80s. It worked out pretty well for him because 36 years later, Unleashed are poised to release Fire Upon Your Lands, their 15th full-length album. Hot off the […]

Oh man, this shit right here is fire. Denver’s Victim of Fire has been around since 2016, and this is their third album. They describe themselves as ‘Stadium Crust’, whatever that is. But what I’m hearing is an utterly nostalgic throwback to the early second wave of metalcore, when Maiden, At The Gates, and dual […]

Sometimes it’s bloody difficult to find information about a band. Take Sowulo and their fifth (!) album: Niht. There’s nothing on Metal Archives about them at all, I mean, five albums in, you’d think there’d be something, right? Nope. So here I go into this with only the barest of information. It’s a good thing […]

It’s been 5 years since Las Vegas Brutal Death metal act Cordyceps released their debut, Betrayal. And while I feel like they missed the boat by not releasing this album a little sooner, at the same time as The Last of Us TV show (where the Cordyceps mushroom is the cause of the apocalypse), as […]

I was a huge fan of brutal TXDM band Kill Everything’s 2018 debut album Scorched Earth.  There were a few split releases since, but it’s not until the lovely titled Headless Cum Dumpster that we finally get the second album. Brian Wynn – Guitars and Shane Newbrough – Drums remain intact as the sole remaining members […]

After a few albums of top-tier deathcore, Signs of the Swarm earned their spot as one of the genre’s better bands, with 2021’s Absolvere being their very peak in my humble opinion. But on 2023’s Amongst the Low and the Empty, along with a jump from Unique Leader to Century Media, came a slight development. While […]

I’m always down for some French black metal on the always reliable Antiq Records. That said, the last releases I dug into were the non-French act, Belnejoum, and the harrowing semi-French depressive black metal of Enterre Vivant. Both enjoyable, but not the usual regal, medieval-sounding French black metal I have come to expect from the […]

I’ve been a fan of Angerot for the last several years, reviewing them here and enjoying their version of Swedish inspired death metal. I really enjoy it when bands think outside of the box. Angerot’s longtime drummer Matt Johnson, departs, but the band has new songs to record and to keep their label happy. So […]

Sometimes an album comes along that speaks to me on a deeply cerebral level. This has happened before; I tend to cover the weirdest shit I can find, usually crazy Folk Metal and Avant-garde Metal.Occasionally, though, I’ll cover instrumental powerhouse albums like Zombi and their fantastic Direct Inject album. Which brings me to Agropelter. A […]

Finland’s Sarastus (Finnish for ‘Dawning’) was formed in 2014 and has 2 full-length albums since then. I grabbed the promo for Agony Eternal as I have been on a back metal/melodic black metal kick of late, and the promo dropped terms like ‘anthemic hooks are at the forefront’, ‘melodies spiral with nightsky fervor’, and ‘too […]

I cannot believe it’s been 23 years since Relapse released the discography of Ohio’s brutal goregrind band – Hemdale. As it is called once again here, Rad Jackson took all the complete works of the band and released a beautiful reissue. Christ, I remember playing a show with these fellas, and there are a bunch […]

This review is incredibly late, but I have reasons. Some are personal, but some made me think the Metal Gods (RIP Ozzy) were working against me. In one instance, when I tried to sit down and finish this out, my headphones wouldn’t pair even when perfectly charged. Another time, they somehow weren’t charged at all […]

I reviewed France’s Creeping Fear Hategod Triumph, their second album, several years ago and commented on what a damn fine slab piece of Morbid Angel/Immolation and some Hate Eternal-inspired death metal it was. Realm of the Impaled is the third album, and yes, the band is still going with the goofy-looking Baphomet to adorn their cover […]